316: Tweetbot Sleeps with Angels

Tweetbot Sleeps with Angels

[00:00:00]

[00:00:04] Jeffrey: Hello everybody. This is the Overtired Podcast. I am one of your hosts, uh, Jeff Severance Gunzel, and I’m here with your other two hosts. They are yours. We are all yours. Um, Christina Warren. Hi Christina. Hello. And Brett Terpstra. Hello Brett. Oh, hey, I didn’t see you come in. Oh yeah, no, I Did you, are you here for the podcast or

[00:00:30] Hi everybody. I wanna say there’s something I can see that nobody can ever see, which is that Brett and Christina have matching headphones which have little blue foamy parts. Every time I see that, I think I need to get mine. Cause I think we’re all using the same headphones.

[00:00:42] Yeah,

[00:00:42] Brett: we are. Same headphones. Yeah. We just went to the extra trouble to put the like microfiber ear cups on it.

[00:00:49] Jeffrey: That’s right,

[00:00:50] Christina: that’s right. In my case, I’ll be honest with you, it was because the original, um, ones on, on that pair, cause I have three or four pairs of these headphones. We’re all using Sony, um, MDR 75 0 6 s, which are like the standard, um, headphones for, for people in production.

[00:01:07] And um, cuz they’re cheap and they last forever. But, um, my, my ear caps. Um, tour, um, and, uh, and I ordered these. I think that now Brett, did you get yours after I got mine? Or did you get yours for Yeah.

[00:01:21] Brett: Okay. Yeah, I got right. Got yours. I got mine Because you got yours. That’s right. You

[00:01:24] Christina: recommended them to me.

[00:01:25] Yes, that’s right. Yeah. Cause they’re really good. So Yeah. Brainwaves I think is what is who makes them I forget something. Yeah,

[00:01:32] Jeffrey: all I’m gonna order mine. Cool. I, I just gotta, I’m tired of standing out. Is the, they

[00:01:36] Brett: only, they only come in this blue. So you will match us if you get some,

[00:01:40] Jeffrey: that’s great. Maybe we can have a listener giveaway.

[00:01:42] You just get, even if you don’t have the headphones, you just get the blue foam. . Lay your head on it at night. Uh, hi everybody.

[00:01:51] Brett: Hi Jeff. Hey Jeff. Um, what do you wanna do first, Jeff?

[00:01:55] Jeffrey: Well, I wanna say we have, there’s one of us, only one of the three of us is just back from Vegas, and I’d like to hear, I’d like to hear all about it.

[00:02:04] How was it

“Vegas. That’s my mental health check-in”

[00:02:04] Christina: Christina? Oh my God. Um, it was amazing. I had such a great time with my mom. Um, this was her first trip to Vegas, which I think I mentioned before. And so, uh, I’ve been many times, but I haven’t been like, on a non-work trip in probably since college. And so I was really excited. This was, you know, big 75th birthday Thing is, you know, originally when I bought the tickets for her, it was before her 75th birthday.

[00:02:30] And so originally we were supposed to go like six months before her birthday, and now we want wound up going five months after. But it was, it was an amazing, amazing trip. We, um, had just a great experience. Um, Adele was phenomenal. Like, uh, it, it, a lot of it was up on my Instagram stories and, um, I, I might archive them into some sort of archive if you wanna see, but the show was unreal.

[00:02:56] Our receipts as I knew they would be for what I paid not. No, but I would’ve won mm-hmm. , um, if I paid, um, okay. Like I paid $3,800 for these tickets, which is insane. Yeah. Hey, I would go way higher , which I now regret not doing, to be honest with you. Um, mm-hmm. When I got outta the show, I said, my only regret was, and I know that there’s no way I can say this without ma making me sound like an asshole, but I wish I had just paid $10,000 for floor seats, um, and, or, or over closer seats.

[00:03:27] Um, I could’ve paid. And here’s also what killed me because she rescheduled and because of all that mess, the, the price that I paid could’ve gotten me tickets on the floor. I’m, or, or maybe a little bit more, but I probably could have had tickets on the floor for that price once the, the rescheduling happened because a lot of people.

[00:03:48] you know, we’re like, got refunds and we’re like, I’m out. And then, you know, um, some of the pricing came down on the resale tickets, although not as much as you would think, but certainly they came down. Yeah. Um, if I paid like anything, even double like face value, I would’ve been ecstatic. It was just, The amount that I paid.

[00:04:09] But even, even from like the nosebleeds, it was a great show. She’s incredible. The, the interesting things that she did on the staging was really phenomenal. She had these things behind her that were visible. Only some of the times there was like these screens that kept going back and forth, and the way that they had, um, her, you know, blown up on, on, on the side, like l e d screens and the way that it would focus in on her face and that it would have things like in black and white certain points was really cool.

[00:04:35] But also the way that the stage screens that made like a red a and how that would, um, go back and reveal things was great. But behind her, in addition to having like a piano on stage and like her, her, um, backup singers, she had people playing like, like cellos and stuff, but they were, it looked like it was on like two, it was on like a two story risers where they were in these like little cubes and.

[00:05:01] they were sometimes obscured and sometimes visible. So it was like you had this massive thing behind her where you see these people full size, like playing, like the orchestra playing that was sometimes visible depending on, um, you know, what, what the setup was, which was really, really cool. And then sometimes they had other things playing on that screen.

[00:05:20] So, um, absolutely incredible show. I really hope she releases a DVD or a streaming thing, I guess is what they would do. Now, they wouldn’t do a dvd, but I, but I hope she releases like a, a, a streaming version of this show. Uh, she was lovely. The rest of the trip was fantastic. Um, we, um, we stated that at the Venetian or the, the Plateau, which.

[00:05:40] In my opinion is the best overall value for a place in Vegas. You can find hotels that are going to be nicer and fancier if you, if you pay more money and get like suites. But in terms of a standard room, I really do think that that place is, is the best overall value. And uh, it was a great location for us cuz it was close to, um, the Mirage where we saw the Beatles, um, uh, se show love, which is incredible.

[00:06:05] Nice. And as right next door to the win in the Encore, um, I took her to dinner at the Bellagio on Sunday night so that she could see the fountains and we had dinner at Lago there. Um, we also, uh, you know, uh, Adele was at Caesar’s, so I was able to basically take her to. Every casino on the strip that I would’ve wanted to show her except for the, um, cosmopolitan.

[00:06:27] Um, but, um, we had incredible service. It was a trip of a lifetime, like she said, like, it’s gonna make me cry, but she was like, it was my best birthday ever. And so I like mission accomplished. I, I’m so, so glad that at this time in my life I had like the ability and the means to really do this right for my mom because yeah, you know, she’s, um, she’s never been.

[00:06:50] And, and I wanted everything to be perfect and I was a little bit concerned. I was like, Man, given how the service industry has been, you know, I don’t know what the service is gonna be like and if people are gonna be nice or if people are gonna be, you know, whatever. And like, I would be understanding if people weren’t, cuz Vegas can be hit or miss anyway.

[00:07:06] Like it usually people are pretty nice, but you know, it, there’s a lot going on and, and I get it, we had such incredible service everywhere we went. When we got to the hotel, we got in at like 11 15, 11 30, and we tried to get early check-in and try to pay for it. And they were like, oh, you’re a decline. And we’re like, all right, well, we’ll just, you know, leave our bags, the luggage thing and, and bum around for, you know, four hours.

[00:07:29] Um, no, we were able to check in early and then the girl was nice enough to like have us check out late, um, for free. So we didn’t have to pay. So we had like the first day it almost felt like a, like a free day because we had like, you know, an extra four and a half hours, um, of, of not having, you know, um, to be like, Feeling weird about like, okay, well what are we gonna do?

[00:07:52] We don’t feel refreshed if you wanna shower, if you wanna do other stuff. So yeah, it, it, it couldn’t have been better. Um, just, just a really, really great trip. And I’m just, like I said, I’m just so grateful that I had the ex, the ability to share this with my mom and to take my mom to this because she deserves it.

[00:08:08] She’s the best. And, and it was just, you know, something that neither of us will ever.

[00:08:13] Brett: I’m really awesome, happy. I’m really happy you got to do that. I cannot get over how much tickets cost. Mm-hmm. , like I still, for me, $80 is too much to pay to go see a live show, um, to pay three plus thousand dollars for, uh, one night show.

[00:08:30] Like I just put all new windows in my house and it costs, you’re not my brand. And that’s, that’s insane to me, like to do that for when entertainment is nuts. No, I’m not, I’m not judging you. I’m just saying, oh, I know you’re not. It’s that, that’s what it costs now.

[00:08:44] Christina: No. And, and to be, and also to be fair, if I had not been insistent on getting the tickets when I got them, if I had waited until it was closer to the show, which would’ve been smarter in retrospect because she wound up, you know, uh, rescheduling, uh, no way to know.

[00:09:02] Right. There is no way to know. And now this was also the thing, I think the reason that I did. A, I kind of got caught up in the hype to be a little bit honest. I was like, I need to get these tickets, I need to do this for her birthday. I had a certain budget and I just did it because I was like, I don’t know if these are gonna get better or not.

[00:09:17] Um, and because this is a, you know, she’s probably, Adele said that she really only wants to do these types of residencies in the future. What I think that she’ll probably do is that she will do really big international shows, like She’ll do Wimbly in the UK and maybe she’ll do some like shows in South America or Australia.

[00:09:36] But she will primarily do kind of what Celine did. But unlike Celine who had a residency for on and off, I think for like 14 years, um, like, cuz one of her residencies I think was like, uh, four years. And I think one of them was like seven or eight. Like this was, she added a co she added two more shows.

[00:09:57] But this was. A 40 show or 38 show engagement. And so, and, and last time with El to was 2016. And, and we saw her then. So I was just like, you know, this is, this is, this is like Springsteen on, on Broadway where incidentally Yeah, my tickets were less than this. So you’re not wrong, Brad, that the prices are insane.

[00:10:16] Oh, you saw that show? I did awesome. And that was un awesome. That was unreal. But I also got lucky with that. Like, I’m sure plenty of people paid more than I paid for Adele, for Springsteen and Broadway and, but, but I, I got lucky and, and knew someone who, who had tickets, but, um, yeah, you’re not, you’re not wrong about any of the, the pricing meeting saying, but I was looking at it as like, okay, I have a budget.

[00:10:39] This is, this is, I wanna do this for my mom, like, money be damned. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, it was about, it was about, it was about the whole thing. Not just Adele per se. Like honestly, she loved Adele and had no complaints. But like, she even said that if all we had done was was see the Beatles CRC show.

[00:10:56] She that would’ve been worth a trip. You’re like, don’t say that. Don’t say that. Don’t say that exactly. I was like, right. Totally, totally. But, but, but here’s the thing. I don’t know if I could’ve gotten her to Vegas for just that. Right? Yeah. So,

[00:11:08] Jeffrey: um, yeah. That doesn’t, that doesn’t sound like nearly as awesome of a trip,

[00:11:12] Christina: No. Well, what was funny is my dad I’d originally. When I looked at booking the tickets the first time, cuz we were supposed to go in March of, of 2022. Um, and, and then it was rescheduled for January. So not as great weather, but whatever I’d originally, like my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary was last April.

[00:11:31] And so I had said, I was like, look, I know dad doesn’t like Adele for whatever reason, but I, um, which given his tasty music, I still don’t understand. Um, but it’s the hard, it’s the hard one not to like . It really is. It’s just, and, and, and, and he likes Celine a lot. Like it, there’s, there are thing it does, I don’t get it, but it is what it is.

[00:11:51] But, um, I was like, well dad, you know, you can come to Vegas too. You don’t have to go to Adele, but like, I would love to take you both to Vegas for your 50th anniversary. And he was like, no, no, no, I don’t wanna go to Vegas. You, you girls go, it’s a girls trip. And then he started doing what he does now because he’s an old man.

[00:12:05] And, um, uh, , which is, he looks up everything on YouTube. Um, he also watches like the celebrity gossip explainer YouTube stuff like nonstop, like, like, like the Nicki Swift stuff, like why this celebrity has fallen off. Like it’s, it’s really funny and I learned somehow, man, he watches, he’s, he’s like really into, it’s funny, that’s called the School of

[00:12:23] Jeffrey: Hard Knocks,

[00:12:24] Christina: ain’t it?

[00:12:25] it totally, no, but, but he started looking up the resort and he started seeing the videos of all this stuff and he was like, I wanna go. I was like, I told you, I told you you could have gone with us. He was, he’s like, I didn’t know Vegas was like this. And I’m like, oh my God. Like my parents had apparently missed out on the entire, like two thousands, like rebrand of Vegas as like a family friendly luxury vacation thing.

[00:12:48] Like they, they just totally, totally missed out on that. And we’re still under the impression that it was like, Like 1970s or 19. There are whole blocks. Can’t

[00:12:59] Jeffrey: get heroin. .

[00:13:01] Christina: Yeah. You gotta go to downtown. You gotta go to downtown Vegas for the heroin. Right. Which is like, which we did not do, like, we did not leave the strip.

[00:13:08] Right. So, so we were like, not in real Vegas. I’m, I’m, I’m aware. But yeah. You know, like, they totally missed out.

[00:13:16] Brett: It’s bizarre. Going, going off the strip or even going to the old strip, like, it’s such a trip. How, how different the world is over like a four block radius there. Um, like once you leave the strip.

[00:13:28] Yeah. I, I went to, I went to multiple NA meetings last time I was in Vegas, uh, which were not on the strip. They were, you know, in like suburban Las Vegas. And it’s a different world. It’s.

[00:13:44] Jeffrey: Yeah. Um, so I wanna say something very quaint. What is, what now seems very quaint and actually seemed that at the time, but about ticket prices, which is not at all about, um, what anybody’s paying now because that, that’s just what people are paying.

[00:13:59] I mean, that’s just, that’s the world we live in, right? , like, um, I was, I was thinking the other day about, um, this band Fugazi, who always insisted that their tickets, yes, $5, their tickets be $5. But there was one exception and I was there and they had to play First Avenue, and it was on probably one of their, like it was 98, 99 probably.

[00:14:23] They were doing two nights, I think two shows. Two nights. No, it was their, um, second to last album actually, I think. Oh. anyway, they, they, for reasons I don’t remember, they had to charge more than $5. I think they had to charge, like I have the ticket stuff somewhere. They had to charge like 5 75 . And the reason, the way that they agreed to do that was if they could print the breakdown of every cent over $5 on the fucking ticket

[00:14:54] Um, and so I have that ticket, it just says in like 5 75 or whatever, and then it’s like every little tax or whatever that’s

[00:15:00] Brett: on there, I was like, Fu Fugazi, Fugazi, the hard hardcore band that didn’t allow people to mosh at their shows.

[00:15:08] Jeffrey: That’s right. That’s right. I mean they were, they were hyper controlled, right?

[00:15:12] Yes.

[00:15:12] Brett: Like absolutely straight edge to the, to the

[00:15:15] Jeffrey: max. And that was, whoa, there goes my microphone. But I thought that that was kind of adorable and in the face of how, where ticket prices went in our world, it’s like Yeah. Beyond quaint, right? Because even then I was like, I’m not paying 35 fucking dollars to go to Target

[00:15:30] Brett: and see Neil Young paid, I paid like $20 to see Iggy Pop and that was just, yeah.

[00:15:34] Yeah. That seemed insane to me. Oh my God. Anyway,

[00:15:38] Christina: which is amazing. See, by the time I started going to concerts Yeah. Unless you were going to a really small show, like those, those days were not there. Or you knew the band or something. Right. Which is why most of the concerts I went to, like in high school, um, were festival.

[00:15:56] because Yeah, right. You know, you, you, because you know, okay, you pay your 50 bucks or 60 bucks or whatever it is, your a hundred bucks. If you’re doing a three day pass and, and you see you’ve got like a hundred bands there, right? Like, so that was how I saw most bands. If they weren’t, you know, really small.

[00:16:10] Um, because everybody else, cuz it’s the fees. Well, even for me, the tickets I think were like, 1100 a piece. And then what happened was StubHub fees were like 50%. Oh, Fred Dell. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so again, if I had been able to like, find somebody to do it one to one with, and there were some various like, uh, ticket platforms that are apparently, you know, more safe and whatnot, I could have done that for this show.

[00:16:38] I was absolutely not risking anything. Yeah, you didn’t get it.

[00:16:42] Brett: Definitely. Definitely keeps the rabble out of the show. If you’re in a show and you know that everyone there paid at least a thousand dollars to be there. Right. You’re, I don’t know. I bet you’re among a, a certain class of people at that point.

[00:16:56] You still gotta deal with some

[00:16:58] Jeffrey: boomer shenanigans.

[00:16:59] Christina: Yeah. Well, or not, well, not, not, not zoomer shenanigans. Actually. Zoomer shenanigans. . Because honestly, cuz at that point then you have like really entitled like either influencers or like rich. Mm-hmm. Like kids who don’t understand. Yeah. Unfortunately, no amount of money will ever have people act Right.

[00:17:14] If that, if, if that were the case, then everybody in business class wouldn’t act like fools. And there are plenty of examples of that , you know.

[00:17:23] Brett: Well, I do,

[00:17:24] Jeffrey: I will say I love a good residency. I love feeling like, I love how you can feel the way the artist has obviously not just spent the last two days traveling and schlepping and whatever.

[00:17:34] Totally. And that they’re just walking comfortably into the building and up on the stage that like, uh, I’m sure it’s wonderful for them, but I always feel like it’s wonderful as an audience member too. So relaxed.

[00:17:44] Christina: Totally. Totally. No, and it’s so funny because honestly, Celine really did like, completely change it from modern artists.

[00:17:49] Like nobody who was a current act did it to my knowledge. So it was

[00:17:53] Jeffrey: her really got

[00:17:54] Christina: that going. Yeah. So they built the coliseum for her, which is where Adele was at Caesar’s. They built that for her. Um, and, and that opened in like 2002 or 2003. And that was like, if you think about it, that. A that was peek Celine, like, well, okay.

[00:18:10] Peek Celine was probably 98 with my heart Will go on. But like she’d had so many big hits. Like she was definitely a big star, right? So she could have done international tours in massive stadiums. Um, but you know, she had the geriatric husband and um, and I, and the kids I think. And so she was like, oh, I’m gonna do Vegas.

[00:18:29] And at that point, to my knowledge, correct me if I’m wrong listeners, but I, I think my history on this is right, is it was mostly legacy acts and then she was the first. Modern, kind of like Hot Act, who did it. And like U2 is doing a residency this year. They’re gonna be at, at the, at the Venetian, I think.

[00:18:46] Um, and

[00:18:47] Brett: they could be

[00:18:48] Christina: considered Legacy, couldn’t they? They are, but my point being like, of course they are, but I’m just saying like, like, but, but, but I say this U Two’s last tour, which was a decade ago, and I know it’s a decade, but, so U Two’s last tour is still to this day, the best selling, like the highest grossing tour of all time.

[00:19:04] Huh? Like, so, and, and, and that was a hundred plus shows where they were playing in the, the 360 stadiums, you know, a hundred thousand plus people. So, you know, um, even when even those big rock acts like, you know, Uh, are are doing residencies, but yet you see everybody doing it. You know, Britney obviously had a, had a residency and, and um, Katie Perry has one there right now, but, um, you know, uh, it’s usually not like top of their game artists though.

[00:19:34] So that is still, I think, a little bit unique to Adele and, and a little bit like Celine cuz like Katie Perry is, is not selling records like she used to, whereas Adele is still selling. Yeah. You know, like Mil, she’s still selling millions and millions of albums. So, um, but, but you’re right. It’s great. It’s great for the artist and, and for the fans.

[00:19:52] Like you said Jeff,

[00:19:54] Brett: so like 20 minutes to talk about Vegas. That was uh, that was a good intro salad.

[00:19:59] Christina: It was solid. Sorry about that. And that’s also my mental health update,

Sponser: ZocDoc

[00:20:01] Brett: so everything else. No apologies. Yeah. That’s awesome. . Uh, Christina, do you want to do the Zoc read this

[00:20:08] Christina: week? Yes, absolutely. This episode is brought to you by Zoc.

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[00:22:05] Brett: probably told you this before, but there was one time I was in Vegas and apparently there’s some kind of desert pollen that causes, uh, like flu leg symptoms. Yeah. And I had like an allergic reaction, completely lost my voice and stuff.

[00:22:20] He knows. It was like, I thought I had left Minnesota behind, but all of a sudden I had this just horrible, like head cold and laryngitis and it was awful. Yeah. I spent, I spent my entire four days in Vegas, just unable to talk, unable to breathe. It was awful. Um, wow. And, and WebMD told me I had cancer, so I could have used Doc.

[00:22:45] Um, that’s a, that’s a web, that’s a web md Well, desert cancer.

[00:22:50] Christina: Um, desert cancer in biggest cancer.

Podcast Swap: Calm the Bleep Down

[00:22:52] Brett: Our, our podcast. Our podcast swap this week comes from the Calm, the Bleep Down podcast. Our days are busy, and with so much going on, it can be hard to say stress free and balanced. That’s why there is. Calm the bleep down.

[00:23:07] Calm the bleep down as a podcast to help you get back to feeling refreshed and relaxed so you can navigate the chaos of regular life with some balance and perspective.

[00:23:17] Each week host Michael Beckermeyer releases two free guided meditations. They’re low key, relaxed, and simple. With each meditation lasting 15 to 20 minutes. It’s not a huge commitment, and the benefits can make it well worth your time. You don’t even need to know how to do it.

[00:23:34] Anyone can meditate. All you have to do is close your eyes and breathe for a few moments. Maybe like so many others, you have a really busy mind and you’re convinced you can’t meditate. Or maybe it’s been a while and you wanna get back into the habit. Search for a calm the bleep down in the Apple Podcast app or wherever you listen to podcast and come meditate with us or them, depending on whose voice this this read is written in.

[00:24:02] Christina

Mental Health Corner

[00:24:03] Brett: says she’s already done her mental health check-in.

[00:24:05] Um, yep. I’ll give you my quick update. I, uh, so I missed a week of the podcast cuz I was sick and then immediately went into like a hypomanic phase where I was still sleeping like six to eight hours a night. , but definitely like had my, uh, obsession, my coding. Like I just wanted to be in my office coding all the time, uh, which I enjoy.

[00:24:29] It’s great. I I get a lot done. Um, it lasted, uh, I, I, yesterday I decided I was gonna stop taking my h d meds, cuz I needed to kind of get off this, uh, very long hypomanic phase. Um, so today I’m, I am without medication and, uh, a little bit, uh, scattered. Feeling a little calmer, but not much. Like I honestly, I, I’m, I’m in the middle of what could be a very long, hypomanic phase.

[00:25:02] Um, I don’t hate it. My girlfriend tells me I’ve been distant. Um, I don’t know exactly what that means, but she’s like, not emotionally distant. Like, I feel like you’re here, but then I don’t, I don’t know. I guess I’m not, I’m not the greatest partner when I’m mad, like I know that. But, um, I thought I was holding it together pretty well this time, but, Um, yeah, so I’m trying to, I’m trying to kind of end it, get back to stable, uh, hopefully without a lot of depression.

[00:25:31] But, um, it’s been, it’s been over a week that I’ve been just slightly elevated, which, uh, at first I was like, holy shit, did I find the new stable? Did I find like the perfect stable where I’m like productive and like, and focused and, and happy and, uh, but it got old after a little bit. So still haven’t, still haven’t found that sweet spot

[00:25:58] Jeffrey: That sounds like a sweet spot.

[00:26:02] Um, I’m, uh, I’m, I’ve. I’ve been thinking, or sorry, I’ve been observing myself. Like, I don’t know if it’s that I’m moving too fast or that my, my brain is impacted by certain medications or what, but I’ve been kind of just making little mistakes that are making me crazy and that aren’t, I mean, some of these are in publishing the podcasts and Brett will be like, it’s not that, not that big of a deal.

[00:26:29] And I’m like, ah, fuck Gabby.

[00:26:31] Brett: I don’t, again,

[00:26:32] Jeffrey: don’t give up on me. Ah. Um, and uh, so let’s just talk about a lot of little things like that, that are, it just when they add up like that they can be kind of stressful. And I, I realized I was kind of looking for a reason and I realized that like, , you know, in a couple months.

[00:26:47] My, the project I’ve been doing for five years ends and it’s my only source of income. Um, and I am looking at what the hell to do next. And I think for me, when I’m in that position, I go through a whole swirl of like, I have moments where I feel confident and I’m, I, I feel like, yeah, no, I’ve, I can, I can definitely build off of what I’ve done in the past and I’m really proud of that, whatever, into like imposter syndrome where it’s like, oh well it’s all a fucking house of cards and , you know, like whatever.

[00:27:17] And um, so I’ve been kind of cycling with that and, and realizing like, oh, I wonder if that’s actually impacting my, like, overall sort of, um, cognitive abilities. Cuz it takes up like way more space than I, I think it will or think it does. Um, so I’m just trying to like, I’m just trying to continually slow myself down a little bit.

[00:27:41] Um, part of part of the way I’m doing that is like if I’ve, if I’m in the middle of trying to do something and I’m moving kind of fast, I’ll just stop and try to like write out what it is I’m doing and I’m going to do next it, when that’s useful. I don’t, I wouldn’t do if it wasn’t useful. Um, but just trying to kind of like stop myself and slow down a little bit and gi give myself a little spaciousness.

[00:28:02] Cause I don’t think I need a ton of spaciousness. I can need just a little, and I need many little bits of spaciousness through the day. Um, so, and I need to not be in a situation where I’m, where I have no choice but to rush, which is a situation I put myself in all the time, . Um, so I’m trying to kind of deal with that rather than being like, what’s wrong with my brain?

[00:28:23] Um, I’m, I’m like, well here, it’s what’s obviously wrong with your brain and can be solved with behavioral changes, . So anyhow, it’s my. . All right. But it’s a lot. Like I, I have, you know, I have a wife of two kids and I’m, I, I’m a, I’m a breadwinner in this house. Mm-hmm. . So it’s just like, shit, I gotta get this.

[00:28:45] Right.

[00:28:46] Christina: Right. You gotta get shit done for sure. Yeah, exactly. .

[00:28:51] Jeffrey: So anyhow, that’s my deal. Yeah.

Ugh. Tech layoffs

[00:28:53] Brett: What do we, my, uh, the tech world is facing massive layoffs, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. . Um, and nobody working in tech is feeling perfectly secure. Um, I don’t care how untouched your team seems right now, there’s like, yeah, there’s a.

[00:29:10] What was it? Google employees were fired by email and they found out, a lot of them found out they were, they had been laid off when their key cards didn’t let them into the building the next day. Oh, that’s funny. So rough. There’s no, there’s no guarantee that, uh, tech jobs are safe, which is probably true across the economy.

[00:29:31] I’m just mostly involved. Well, it’s a lot, a lot of those tech moves, but I spend a lot of time thinking, holy shit, what do I do? If, if I get laid off in the middle of a tech recession and nobody’s hiring, like, what happens to me? What happens to, to my family? Yeah. Uh, like me and my partner and my, I guess, yeah.

[00:29:51] But that’s a family. Um,

[00:29:53] Christina: well, I, I think so. If, if, if, if it makes you feel any better, Brett, like, I think that you a, I think you’re in a better position than a lot of other people because you have a lot of skills, so you can be slotted into a lot of things. Um, I, I have a very um, , I have a much, uh, smaller set of skills, shall we say.

[00:30:13] Uh, so, um, I, I worry someone, but I’m also, I have to just be confident that if something happens, I’ll find something. But I think you have a very broad skillset where you could be s slotted into a lot of things. The only thing I’ll say, and I also worried about the, the, the tech recession and and whatnot, is that even though all these layoffs are happening, if you look like even in the United States at the number of like engineers that we need, we still don’t have enough.

[00:30:41] So even if like the, the, the scary thing with the big companies doing the layoffs is that you might find another job, but it might not pay as well. And depending on your budget, and if you’re like really reliant on like that, you know, like mid six figure salary, like, uh, you know, for your mortgage and all these other things like that could really fuck you.

[00:31:01] I’m not like discounting that, but, If, if this is more like a, like a, you know, early two thousands kind of tech bubble thing and, and, and we don’t know yet. Like there are still like startups. I, I know for a fact are still hiring and so you’re sort of in this weird place where, yeah, okay, you might lose your job at Google and, and I’m not in any way discounting how horrible and like awful and stressful that would be, but there are other places hiring.

[00:31:27] It’s not like, you know, some industries that I’ve worked in where like then no one is hiring and you know, you wouldn’t even be able to find anything comparable to live off of. So I hope that can give you a little bit of. It, it, it’s not gonna give you reassurance, but just, just, just to say like, I’m just looking at it.

[00:31:46] There are still jobs, they’re just maybe different, right? Like we just, I think the, the interesting thing is Brett and I were talking about this before the podcast started. There’s this entire generation of people who, um, have never been through layoffs or recession before. Mm. And, and that’s weird for me because I used to work in journalism, which obviously had lots of that.

[00:32:09] Right. Even after like, the boom years of digital, which was the only part of journalism I worked in, there were all kinds of layoffs. But, you know, I also graduated from college in 2008, so like my entire, like worldview was shaped by that. And, uh, but there’s a whole generation of people who’ve literally never seen it.

[00:32:26] And so, uh, I totally understand the, the anxiety because I have questions too. I’m also the breadwinner in my house, so I definitely have, I’m definitely there with you where. You know, I have decent savings and, and I’d be okay. Um, but you know, like yeah, you know, you’re definitely have like those questions.

[00:32:43] It’s

[00:32:43] Brett: amazing how fast savings can disappear when you have no other source of income. Like, I have decent savings right now too. Um, probably, probably not as decent as yours cuz I’ve only been back in the job world for Right. A little over a year now. Um, but like I could survive six months, like if I lost my job and had no, like unemployment or anything, I could survive six months, um, comfortably at my current lifestyle.

[00:33:12] Um, yeah. But, but then, right. If it took me longer than that to find a job, I’d be in trouble.

[00:33:18] Christina: Yeah. I could do a year right now, um, at, at, at my current stuff and, and probably extend that. That’s great. If, if I cut things down. Um, but you know, I definitely don’t want to do that. Right. Yeah. And that would, and, and, and to be clear that’s, that, that’s before going into the 401k.

[00:33:33] Right. Yeah, exactly. Other stuff the same, which, which I wouldn’t wanna touch. Um, so I, I have a year, but yeah, I obviously don’t, you know, yeah. My,

[00:33:41] Brett: you know, my 401k, I lost half, I lost half of my 401k from the first half of my career. When I got divorced, I just, uh, without really even being asked, I just was like, you deserve half of this.

[00:33:54] And I just signed over half my 401k. Um, and then didn’t, didn’t have a job for the next, like seven years. Cause obviously no

[00:34:03] Jeffrey: lawyers involved ,

[00:34:05] Brett: which is better many times. Yeah, I know it’s way there. And my divorce was super easy. It was, it, it, it went fine. Um. . I think I did, I think I did right by her. Um, at the time we got divorced, she was making more than I was anyway, so mm-hmm.

[00:34:21] um, it, it, that wasn’t too hard, but I didn’t start Redding to my 401K until last year. Um, so basically I have the 401k of like a 21 year old right now. Um, yeah. It’s not, it’s in a similar, it’s not significant . Yeah,

[00:34:39] Jeffrey: yeah. Yeah. That’s scary. Yeah.

[00:34:43] Christina: And mine is mostly my, I mean, I have my mind, my 401k is definitely not what it should be because I saved a whole lot less than, than um, you know, you were suggested to.

[00:34:50] Cuz I lived in New York City and I was like, What do you mean? I’m supposed to say this amount of Yeah, yeah. . Fuck you. Um, but, but a lot of my stuff has been, uh, it has been caught up in stock, stock that I didn’t sell dumbly. Um, and the stock has, has, you know, gone down significantly and the last year. So that’s been fun to just see a third of that disappear.

[00:35:13] But, you know,

[00:35:14] Jeffrey: Yeah.

[00:35:16] Christina: Yeah. But also I, I work in an industry that gives me stock so that there’s, that I, I, I’ve

[00:35:20] Brett: restricted stock units that if I stick around long enough, they’ll, they’ll vest and I’ll be able to take them out. But I, I have another six months before the first quarter of my last bonus, actually vests and I can touch it.

[00:35:34] Okay. Uh, so hopefully, hopefully I can stick around that

[00:35:37] Christina: long. We’ll see. Yeah. My, my, my mine, mine vests quarterly, but I, I don’t do the thing that you can do with after,

[00:35:43] Brett: after a year. I learned this about GitHub, uh, invest quarterly after a year. But your first year you can’t,

[00:35:50] Christina: well, no. Well, well, that, that’s, that’s for your signing, uh, amount.

[00:35:54] Um, because I was joining from Microsoft. Oh, okay. All my stock already transferred over, and then my, my bonus that I got at GitHub is quarterly, so I was already on like a Microsoft vest. So, but yeah. Um, so most of them, most of them, the, the, the first amount that they give you will vest. Yeah. Um, At least the signing amount will, will vest, um, after a year.

[00:36:16] But, but, um, your first bonus, even if you get that in under a year, usually quarterly. Nice.

King of the Hill Corner

[00:36:22] Brett: Um, I know we have a, we have a few